Near miss of the earth by a small asteroid

Details Near miss of the earth by a small asteroid Near miss of the earth by a small asteroid

Nov 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991natur.354..287s&link_type=abstract

Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 354, Nov. 28, 1991, p. 287-289.

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16

Asteroids, Orbit Calculation, Orbital Elements, Earth Atmosphere, Space Observations (From Earth)

Scientific paper

On the night of January 18, 1991 the 0.91 m Spacewatch Telescope on Kitt Peak recorded a streaked image extending over more than 161 arcsec. Further observations showed that the images were of an object traveling in an independent orbit around the sun; it was given the asteroidal designation 1991 BA. Orbital computations are presented here which indicate the 1991 BA was only 0.0053 AU from the earth at the time of discovery, closing to 0.0033 AU at the last detection. Extrapolation of the calculated orbit shows that the object passed only 0.0011 AU (170,000 km) from the earth 12 hrs after it was found. The observed brightness translates into an absolute visual magnitude 28.9, corresponding to a diameter of only 5-10 m. 1991 BA is the closest and smallest asteroid yet observed outside the earth's atmosphere.

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